Restoring of school money gets push

Updated 10:44 pm, Thursday, January 10, 2013

AUSTIN — Legislators should quickly restore public education funds since they took hardly any time bumping up their own staff budgets, education advocates said Thursday.

A day after returning to the Capitol, the House voted overwhelmingly for a routine resolution allowing legislators to increase their monthly staff budget by $1,325 — from $11,925 to $13,250.

The increase applies only for the five months of the legislative session, which opened Tuesday.

The increase won't cost taxpayers any extra money since the allocation simply shifts money from unexpended House administration budgets, including House committees, to the office accounts of individual lawmakers.

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Collectively, up to $993,750 could be added to those office accounts.

Meanwhile, the Senate boosted its staff budget by 7 percent.

Lawmakers cut their office accounts by 10 percent two years ago during tough economic times.

“I've heard from several members who had difficulty hiring or retaining staff, or they have had to supplement staff salaries from their campaign accounts or their personal accounts,” House Administration Chairman Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, told his colleagues.

The resolution also increases the maximum monthly staff salary to $5,000 from $4,200.

No legislator objected to the increase before the 143-5 vote.

And while it won't cost additional money, it did raise some eyebrows.

The GOP-controlled Legislature cut $5.4 billion in public education funding two years ago, resulting in 11,487 teachers and nearly 15,000 additional education staff members losing their jobs, education expert Lynn Moak testified in the ongoing school funding trial.

State leaders have expressed willingness in the early days of the session to restore funding for enrollment growth (about $1.1 billion a year) but have not shown much appetite to restore public school funds despite a much rosier economic forecast.

“The House made it easier to do their work. Now it's time for them to make it easier for schoolchildren to do their work,” Texas State Teachers Association spokesman Clay Robison said. “Schoolchildren should be a higher priority.”

An $8.8 billion budget surplus and a Rainy Day Fund balance of more than $11 billion provide more than enough money, Robison said, “for the legislative majority to do the right thing. Restore the school funding cuts and start reducing the number of overcrowded classrooms. Some 11,000 teachers lost their jobs. They belong back in the classroom.”

“We appreciate that the House values the idea that you need to pay respectable wages to keep quality staff and to avoid the cost of turnover,” AFT President Linda Bridges said. “We hope they take this view when looking at public education funding in the session ahead.”

Funding for public education and other state services won't be decided until much later, said Jason Embry, spokesman for House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.

“Decisions about funding for public education and other priorities will be made by the full House as the appropriations bill moves through the legislative process in the months ahead,” Embry said.

Geren assured his colleagues their office salary increase “is not new money and only shifts unexpended appropriations made to run the state House. Those accounts will roll back to previous limits after the session ends by June, he said. Geren also noted the legislators' $600-a-month salary, set by the state Constitution, will not change.

The Legislature is part-time work, with the state House running efficiently to protect taxpayers, Embry said.

“This money has already been allocated to the House and remains unspent — and while this increases office budgets, the amount of money spent is left to each member's discretion,” Embry said. “As always, Speaker Straus encourages members be efficient with resources when serving their constituents.”